Activist Success! Nigerian Witch-hunter Cancels Tour

Several months ago on SGU, I talked about the horrific case of abuse and murder of a teen in the UK whose relatives thought he was a witch. I mentioned that this was a widespread problem due to Christian evangelists like Helen Ukpabio, an influential Nigerian preacher who commands her flock to drive out and kill the (usually child-) witches amongst them.

I also mentioned that Ukpabio had plans to visit Texas in March to spread her hate-mongering fantasies in the US, and that skeptics in the US and elsewhere were mobilizing against her. Well, good news! They succeeded, and Ukpabio has canceled her trip.

As New Humanist reports, this victory is already being spun by Ukpabio’s supporters, as in this article from Nigerian Voice which claims that there have been threats to the evangelist’s life from – wait for it – Stepping Stones, which is once again a well-established nonprofit focused on saving the lives of children accused of witchcraft.

And I’ve noticed that Ukpabio is also being supported (begrudgingly) by people rushing to claim that this is some kind of threat to free speech (see the first comment here, for instance). These people will conveniently forget the limits the US already places on free speech, particularly on words that incite violence. Rarely is there so clearly a case of a person’s words directly leading to the maiming and murder of innocents in the way that Ukpabio tells her flock that God wants them to abuse and abandon their children.

So all around, this one was a great success. Let’s remember it the next time a dangerous quack needs to be shut down.

Rebecca is a writer, speaker, YouTube personality, and unrepentant science nerd. In addition to founding and continuing to run Skepchick, she hosts Quiz-o-Tron, a monthly science-themed quiz show and podcast that pits comedians against nerds. There is an asteroid named in her honor.

This is good, but I’ll note that laws against inciting violence wouldn’t apply. The courts have held that the restriction of free speech is only legitimate if the violence would be immediate — such as if there was a supposed witch present and she was trying to whip the crowd up to kill it. If she merely tells people to kill witches in general, that is considered legally protected speech.